Candidates and Canapés in the Village

Steven Gaines, a Republican running for East Hampton Town Board, was among the candidates who attended a Group For Good Government’s gathering in East Hampton on Sunday afternoon.
Morgan McGivern

Incumbent and neophyte politicians of all stripes were present and hobnobbing at an East Hampton Group for Good Government meet-the-candidates affair on Sunday afternoon at Arthur and Laurie Malman’s house.
After a brief opening speech by Mr. Malman, the group’s co-president, the 2011 candidates for town supervisor, town board, town highway superintendent, and town trustee introduced themselves to the party’s attendees.
The nonpartisan Group for Good Government was formed in 2008 in response to the town’s financial crisis. Its goal, according to its Web site, is to promote and support “a government that will bring fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability to the people of East Hampton.” It is also working to increase local voter registration of East Hampton’s large population of second-home owners.
The event was originally going to be held Saturday, but because of the rain had been rescheduled. As the candidates circulated in the crowd, Sunday’s fine weather was the topic of much conversation as was the ongoing battle over efforts to privatize a stretch of town beach, especially among the candidates for town trustee.
Scott King, the town’s incumbent Democratic highway superintendent, got the afternoon’s biggest laugh when he noted that Georgica Close, the potholed south-of-the-highway thoroughfare leading to the capacious house where the event was held, was under village, not town, jurisdiction.